Enjoyment without regrets - this maxim applies in the modern consumer world, in which abundance still rules, but the will to moderate has long since become a trend, for many people especially for eating and drinking.

The widespread renunciation of meat, sugar and alcohol is no longer a seasonal and religiously motivated phenomenon, but a fashion that is constantly creating new products, from meatless burgers and sausages to sugar-free desserts and milk substitutes made from almonds and oats to beer, wine and even spirits without alcohol.

Peter Badenhop

Editor in the Rhein-Main-Zeitung.

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Compared to the breweries, the producers of wines and sparkling wines took a long time to adjust to “low-alcohol” and “no-alcohol”, but now there are numerous non-alcoholic products on the shelves of supermarkets.

Large corporations such as Rotkäppchen and Henkell / Freixenet are following the trend, and something is now also happening in the premium segment.

Success with "Träublein"

The Rheingau winemaker Johannes Leitz showed the way with his Riesling "Eins-Zwei-Zero" and created not a grape juice trimmed for dryness, but a real wine that smells like a Riesling of apples, pears and citrus fruits and in the mouth a lot of freshness with aromas of yellow fruits and a stimulating acidity. And the Hessian state wineries Kloster Eberbach have launched the first non-alcoholic sparkling wine from the ranks of the German premium wineries with their "Sparkling Riesling alcohol-free" and, like Leitz, have opted for good base wines, i.e. Rheingau Rieslings in late harvest quality, and for dealcoholization via Vacuum evaporation decided.

The Eltville Sektkellerei Schloss Vaux is also very popular with the public with its “Träublein”. The tingling, alcohol-free Secco, which with its grape and cassis aromas actually reminds a little of real sparkling wine, has meanwhile established itself with those customers who want to do without alcohol. "Of course, it has nothing to do with sparkling wine," says managing director Christoph Graf, expressing that his house actually stands for traditional sparkling wine and classic bottle fermentation. And that is also the reason why Vaux Castle is now embarking on a new path with the “Nouvaux”.

This is also not sparkling wine in the conventional sense, but a drop that offers almost everything that makes a good sparkling wine with only two percent alcohol: It has a lot more expression and much less residual sweetness than conventional non-alcoholic sparkling wines, plus a finer and longer, Perlage created by fermentation and a slightly yeasty sparkling wine aroma, which lacks the typical, mostly very annoying dealcoholization notes of other products in this category. The “Nouvaux” also consists of basic wines from which the alcohol has been technically withdrawn. But it is then given a classic bottle fermentation, which not only brings the two percent alcohol, but above all a real sparkling wine character.

The base wines were dealcoholized to 0.5 percent at the specialized Rüdesheim winemaker Carl Jung and then placed on the so-called tirage, i.e. filled with a mixture of yeast and grape juice to trigger a second fermentation in the bottle. After nine months of classic bottle fermentation, the “Nouvaux” finally has two percent alcohol - and then, according to Graf, “more aromas that only the second fermentation can bring”.

The result is astonishing - and more convincing than anything other non-alcoholic competitor has ever seen on the market.

“We want to reach discerning customers who are looking for more proximity to sparkling wine,” says Graf.

The sale of the first 6,000 bottles will show whether he will succeed in this; they will go to a few dealers and restaurateurs, but can also be obtained directly from the Vaux online shop at www.schloss-vaux.de.

At 16 euros, a bottle of “Nouvaux” costs about as much as the real sparkling wine of the house.